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DAWN ISLAND. 



& STale* 



BY HARRIET MARTINEAU. 



MANCHESTER: 

J. GADSBY, NEWALL'S-BUILDINGS. 
1845. 






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ounci/ 



A "« 10,1840 



CONTENTS. 



CHAP. PAGE. 

1. — Nature and Man at War 7 

2. — Puerile Man and his Gods 14 

3.— The Priest and the Oracle , 25 

4. — More Human Sacrifice . . 32 

5.— Vital Tribute 38 

6. — The Priest and the Advent 48 

7. — A Higher Disclosure 62 

8. — Spiritual Tribute 74 

9. — Nature and Man atPeace 86 



PREFACE. 



This Tale, written for the purpose, is my offering 
to the Bazaar of the National Anti - Corn - Law 
League. 

However small its value, this contribution is 
made by me without hesitation, because I think 
that earnestness of conviction on the principle of 
Free Trade, — as on any principle whatever, — is 
most effectually evinced and employed by every one - 
working in his own way for the cause. The sepa- 
rate gifts of a thousand of us contributors may be 
of insignificant value in themselves ; but, as evi- 
dence that a thousand minds, and a thousand pairs 
of hands have been at work on the ground of a 
common conviction, the testimony is not unimpor- 
tant. For my share, therefore, I have written this 
Tale ; and I shall be gratified by its being granted a 
place among a myriad of other avowals of interest in 
the cause of Free Trade. 

H. MARTINEAU. 

Birmingham, April, 1845. 




F a voyager were to search 
through the world for an 
abode of peace, he would 
probably choose, for its 
outward aspect, one of the 
small tropical islands of 
the Pacific; and of the 
whole Archipelago, no one 
could present a more en- 
ticing appearance of tran- 



8 DAWN ISLAND. 

quillity than that which was, while yet unknown to 
navigators, called by its inhabitants the Island of 
the Day Spring; or, as we should call it for short- 
ness, Dawn Island. The lofty summits of the 
central mountains seemed to bring down to earth 
something of the unfathomable quietness of the 
tropical skies which overarched them. The trans- 
parency of the atmosphere gave an appearance of 
stability to every object w T ithin reach of the eye, — a 
clearness of outline, and firmness of position, hardly 
to be conceived of by inhabitants of regions where 
every thing is seen through shifting and refracting 
fogs and mists. The waving of the plumy foliage 
of the cocoa-nut grove, and the leap and gush of 
the mountain streams, rather lulled than disturbed 
the senses of the observer; and if he turned his 
gaze to the shores, he could not but think that the 
space between them and the coral reef which sur- 
rounded the island contained the stillest waters he 
had ever seen. The coral reef extended to various 
distances from the shore, now stretching out so 
as to enclose a lake-like expanse of two miles in 
breadth, and then bending inwards so as to leave 



DAWN ISLAND. 9 

no more room than for two canoes to pass. To any 
gazer, looking down into the clear depths of these 
waters, all appeared even calmer than on the sur- 
face. Fathoms deep, he saw an apparent foliage 
and fruitage, delicate as vegetation itself — fragile- 
looking as the slenderest weeds, hut giving way to 
no lapse of waters, and not stirred hy the gliding 
of a throng of fishes, as the houghs of trees are hy 
the flitting of birds. These many-coloured corals, 
sprouting and branching out from the sandy bottom, 
gave the idea of a luxuriant garden suddenly over- 
flowed, and petrified by the deluge. The stillness 
of the land and w T aters within the reef was made 
more striking by the chafing of the ocean beyond. 
The long breakers rolled in, rising in height and 
force as if they w r ould surmount the barrier, but 
clear and lovely as opal; and on the first encounter 
with the reef, their white crests were dispersed in 
show r ers of spray, which merely dimpled the smooth 
waters within, and sent a solemn sea music re- 
sounding through the nearer inland groves. 

While such was the peaceful aspect of Dawn 
Island in ordinary times, there was one day in the 

B 



10 DAWN ISLAND. 

history of its inhabitants when all was disturbance, 
through its length and breadth. Wars were indeed 
frequent, — aggressive or defensive wars with the 
people of another island, or conflicts arising from 
rebellion at home. On the present occasion, an 
expedition, with the king for its leader, w T as going 
forth to put down an insurrection on the opposite 
point of the island, where a dismissed minister 
had gathered round him all the discontented, and 
was putting forth a claim to the regency of the 
island, on the deposition of the king, — the heir 
being still a child. 

On the king's side, the preparations had been 
going forward for some days. The weapons were 
cleaned and pointed, and their handles smeared with 
resinous gum, to make them fast in the warriors' 
grasp ; the god Oro was brought out from his temple, 
and a red feather solemnly taken from the image by 
the priests, and borne hither and thither with the 
army, as a symbol of Oro's presence and sanction ; 
the fleet of canoes was assembled in the lagoon, and 
the altars were dressed in those which were to con- 
vey the symbols and sacrifices of the gods. While 



DAWN ISLAND. 11 

the priests were preparing for the final ceremonial, 
and the king was holding a council under the deep 
shade of a bread-fruit tree, the orators were working 
up themselves and their hearers of the army into 
a state of high excitement, bidding the warriors to 
dart upon their enemies like a sheaf of lightning 
bolting from the clouds, to fasten upon them as 
barbed arrows on the flesh of the thigh, to over- 
whelm them as a waterspout advancing upon a fish- 
ing fleet, and finally to come home in triumph, to 
devour their chief foe as the shark swallows the 
strong man, when most secure in his strength. Some 
of the hearers were transported with the fervour of 
the oratory, casting glances of fire on their comrades, 
and uttering shouts of triumph. Of these comrades, 
however, some were of a different temperament, and 
others had their sobriety of mind preserved by the 
sight of their wives, who were hanging on the rear 
of the assemblage ; or of their houses, which peeped 
out from the groves, or nestled in the meadows ; and 
these remembered that the triumph was premature, 
and that, till the disposition of Oro was fully ascer- 
tained, no man could say with any assurance on 



12 DAWN ISLAND. 

which side would be the victory, and on which the 
devastation. Among some of these soldiers arose a 
rumour of " Where is Miava? Who has seen Miava, 
on this day when he should have been seen by every 
one?" And this muttered inquiry was taken up and 
loudly echoed by the women, whose excited imagi- 
nations immediately caught the alarm. A panic 
spread lest old Miava should have gone over to the 
rebels, and carried Oro's favour with him. In haste 
and trepidation, numbers ran to see whether the 
presents brought for the priest were sufficient — 
whether the mats and the cloth were of a handsome 
quality, and so arranged as to please the old man's 
eye, and stimulate his zeal in propitiating the god. 
All was found satisfactory enough, — at least in the 
eyes of the priest next in rank, who gave notice that 
Miava had merely retired to the woods, for peace 
and quiet, till the war should be over. He was now 
weary of the wars of which he had seen so many; 
and he left it to younger men to deal expressly with 
the gods, and receive the reward of their prayers 
and watchings. As the fatigues and anxieties were 
left to his juniors, so were the mats and the cloth, 



DAWN ISLAND. 13 

and even the canoe which he had heard was intended 
for him if he obtained a good response on the pre- 
sent occasion. 

No one ventured to say a word in disparagement 
of the junior priests ; but all were cast down by the 
absence of old Miava, who had for many years of- 
fered with his own hand the last human sacrifice, 
slain while the warriors stood, ready to start, with 
their arms in their hands. The king, who kept an 
eye on all that passed, from his station in the 
shade, marked the discouragement which fell upon 
the forces, and the cooling down of the orators, as 
their hearers turned their heads another way. He 
gravely observed to his council, "Miava must be 
brought down from the woods. By sunset, he must 
have his hand on the stem of the sacred tree." 

" But if he will not come?" objected the chief 
minister. 

" Then the war cannot proceed; and which of you 
will suffer that? Miava must come." 



CHAPTER II. 

PUEKILE MAN AND HIS GODS. 

At sunrise of this, as of every day, Miava had 
come out, to spend his hours in the wood or on the 
rocks. There was nothing in the abodes of any of 
the inhabitants of the island to tempt them to stay 
within, — no coolness, nor cleanliness, nor comfort. 
Holes in the roof let in the rain and mosquitoes; 
hollows in the earthen floor held stagnant water; 
the long grass with which the floor was strewed was 
never changed, and the food and drink dropped 
upon it rotted and fermented; so that the litter 
was presently fit only for a stye. There was no se- 
parate sleeping place; only the drier parts of the 
floor were chosen, — the parts near the walls, and 
there the mats were spread, and a low block of 
wood was placed for each head that desired the 
luxury of a pillow. Those who had pigs let them 
wallow in the midst ; and those who had fowls let 



DAWN ISLAND. 15 

them perch where they would. Xo wonder that 
Miava was out early, exchanging the grunt and 
cluck of his domestic stock for pleasanter out-door 
sounds, for the fall of the broad bright cascade 
which leaped the rocks near his hut, for the rustle 
and clatter of the long stiff leaves and light leaf- 
lets of the cocoa-nut trees which sprang from the 
crevices of the precipice at hand, and for the distant 
murmur of the sea. 

As he came out, he glanced at the smaller hut 
which stood a little way behind his own. Women, 
being regarded as an inferior race, were provided 
with a sort of kennel, where they might eat their 
coarser and poorer food, and wait the bidding of 
the men of the family. They were required to cook 
for their masters at the superior oven provided for 
the better abode, to carry in the baskets of food 
and wait on the eaters, and at night to sleep in the 
most comfortless corner of the larger dwelling; but 
further than this they were not indulged. They 
must eat only when others had done, must not 
touch anything particularly good nor complain of 
anything particularly bad, must always be within 



16 DAWN ISLAND. 

call, and wait standing, must not lie down at night 
till all the animals were asleep, and must, without 
fail, be busy at the oven before their masters awoke 
in the morning. So Miava glanced round at his 
daughter's kennel and at the ovens, and, not seeing 
her, ought, according to rule, to have been very 
angry. 

But Miava was not wont to be angry; and least of 
all with Idya. Idya was not his own daughter ; but 
had been adopted under circumstances which en- 
deared her to him as much as if she were. She had 
been deserted in her early childhood, — her parents 
being both slain in war, and no one caring to nou- 
rish a helpless little creature of a sex not worthy to 
be offered in sacrifice, and of an age not ripe for 
cooking and beating fibre-cloth. So she would have 
perished on some rock or in some recess of the 
meadows, if Miava, who was of such dignity as to 
brave public opinion without detriment, had not 
connived at her continued existence, and tacitly 
taken some measures to secure it. He threw her 
some of the inferior sorts of fish which were brought 
to him in tribute, and did not inquire where she 



DAWN ISLAND. 17 

broiled them. She once found in her sleeping hole 
a mallet for beating cloth, — a mallet which was not 
too heavy for her strength, — a clear permission to 
learn to make cloth, if she conld induce any women 
to teach her. It was even reported that not only 
had some one provided her with a bark foot-sling, 
for climbing cocoa-nut trees, but that Miava himself 
was once caught showing her how to use it, and 
taking care that she did not fall in her first attempt. 
By some imperceptible means, Idya grew up to be 
useful, like other girls, and to be indulged as few 
other girls were. When, as on this morning, she was 
not abroad before her proprietor, he did not beat 
or scold her, but said to himself that he was pro- 
bably astir earlier than usual, or that Idya looked 
prettier and pleasanter when she was awakened by 
the first sun ray or the early breeze, than when 
scared out of her sleep by a kick or a growl. 

He first repaired to his morning station, a point 
of rock whence he could overlook in privacy the 
valley beneath, and a wide range of shore. There 
he forgot everything in the interest of watching the 
gathering of the forces, and the reception of the 



18 DAWN ISLAND. 

king and his council. He was thankful to be on 
his quiet perch, rather than amidst the prepara- 
tions, — for other reasons than he could freely avow. 
His mind w T as troubled by so much strife, and far 
more deeply troubled by being made, through his 
office, the abettor of strife. He had only followed 
custom and tradition in wdiat he had done ; but of 
late these had failed to sustain him completely, — to 
steel his heart against the cries of dying men, and 
to make him glory, for the sake of the gods, in 
sending the victim's right eye on a leaf for the king 
to pretend to eat. The slightest qualm of doubt as 
to the correctness of such proceedings spoiled all 
the complacency of them; and then again, there 
was the fear that any such qualm was an offence 
against the gods. He was glad that years and long 
service now afforded him an excuse before Oro and 
the king for being out of the affair altogether. And 
with this sense of relief he looked down this morn- 
ing on the moving multitude. 

As he watched, absorbed in thought, he was 
startled by a rustling in the bushes near, and next 
by the appearance of a woman whom he knew as 



DAWN ISLAND. 19 

the inhabitant of one of the best abodes in the 
valley below. Her face was now convulsed with 
fear, and her dress was torn, as if with scrambling 
through the thickets. She strove to speak, in vain. 

" Feito," said the priest, "your son is now a 
man; and he must go out with men to the battle. 
When he was dying under the sorcerer's curse, and 
you fetched me to save him, was it not your wish to 
see him a man among men on such a day as this?" 

' ' It is my wish now," replied the sobbing mother; 
" but the best hope for him now is that he may be 
as a beast among the mountains." 

" Is he tabooed?" quickly inquired Miava. 

" He is, — and in him all of us. Many months 
since, he sent to the king only half the bread-fruit 
that was expected, though we kept too little for our- 
selves. Since then, I have lived in fear. My chil- 
dren said to me still w T hen the new moon appeared, 
'We are safe;' but they will say so no more. The 
chief of our valley received the token to find a vic- 
tim last night. He accepted it. There is no other 
than my son fit for the sacrifice. We have fled 
thus far. Tell us where further to fly." 



20 DAWN ISLAND. 

"Where is Motuaro ? Gone up the mountain 
before you?" 

" How could he pass the threshold of Idya?" said 
the mother, with a melancholy smile. 

Miava sighed, as he quickly turned homewards, 
followed by Feito and her young daughter. He had 
seen with satisfaction, for some time past, that Mot- 
uaro loved Idya. He had hoped to see Idya the 
young man's wife : but now, if the family must leave 
their bread-fruit tree and their fishing boat, and be 
outcasts in the mountains, what could he wish? 

As he expected, he found Idya in tears, yet not 
listening to her lover, but rather hastening from 
him to meet his mother, to whom she rushed with 
a wail of grief, as soon as she saw her. The young 
man, w T ho was following closely and sadly, now 
turned back, saying, 

" She does not love me. I will go and be the 
sacrifice, for no one else is so miserable." 

" You will go to the mountain," said Miava, with 
a tone of authority. "You are young; the king 
will soon be old, and the taboo may be buried in 
his grave." 



DAWN ISLAND. 21 

" The taboo is everywhere now," cried the mother 
in despair. 

" I can show you a place where it cannot hurt 
you," said Miava, wrapping his garment about him, 
as if preparing to guide the fugitives. 

During the moment of waiting, the ears of the 
mother, quickened by terror, caught the sound of 
voices from amidst the wood below. At a sign 
from her, all listened. It was certain that men 
were approaching. Not an instant was to be lost. 
Miava whispered to Idya, 

"Lead Feito and her son up by the path of the 
torrent to the sorcerers den. They must enter it 
without fear ; but you must not set foot in it. You 
must at once return, — and by the other path. No 
one is in the cave, and nothing shall hurt them. 
They will find food there till I can show them how 
to find more." 

At a sign from his hand, the party were gone. 

Miava did not return to his station ; for he 
desired to intercept the party who were ascending 
through the wood. As he leaned against the door- 
post of his hut, awaiting them, the thought that 



22 DAWN ISLAND. 

more and more haunted his life settled down 
gloomily on his mind. 

"'The forest- tree shall grow; the coral shall 
spread and branch out; but man shall cease.' If 
prophecy is true, this is the truest. My father 
walked through thirty peopled valleys ; and his 
father through fifty. Of those fifty I have seen 
thirty desolate. Our young men die childless out- 
casts in the dens of the mountain ; and our strong 
warriors go out and never return. Yes, the tree 
grows as lofty as ever; and the coral spreads in 
the sea as the convolvulus on the earth;" — and he 
looked from side to side, and could see no space 
between the trees where its bell-flowers did not 
sprinkle the grass; — "but man is fast dwindling, 
and will soon cease from our world. Too true is 
prophecy; and some fearful prophecies remain." 

Here his meditation was interrupted by the 
messengers from the king, who came to beseech or 
require him to officiate in the sacrifice below. For 
some time he resisted. But when it appeared that 
the greater number of the party were on the point 
of being despatched in pursuit of a victim for sacri- 



DAWN' ISLAND. 23 

fice on the mountain, his concern for Motuaro and 
his mother, and his immediate power of saving 
them prevailed. He agreed to go on certain con- 
ditions : — that the deputation should, to a man, 
attend him, with such observances as he should 
prescribe ; that he should select the victim ; and 
that he should be the watcher in the temple at 
night for the response of Oro. 

It was with a heavy heart that Miava slowly 
descended to the shore. The herald blew the 
trumpet-shell before him, — its harsh blast startling 
the birds from their hiding places in the trees ; and 
a young priest in the rear beat the sacred drum, 
whose dreary sound spread fear of the taboo wher- 
ever it was heard. 

" I had hoped," thought Miava, " never again to 
have spread fear through a race already doomed to 
cease. But by waiting on the god this once more, 
I may save a man. Yet, is it saving a man, when 
another must be chosen ?" He put down this pain- 
ful question by the remembrance, " This, however, 
is not my affair. It was within the memory of my 
fathers when the gods first required, by a dream, that 



24 DAWN ISLAND. 

the highest gift — man himself — should be offered. 
I am glad I was not the dreamer ; but there can be 
no doubt of the will of the gods. And it is good to 
be able to choose the sacrifice, and turn aside the 
vengeance of the king. And it may be that Oro 
will give no response to-night ; and then the war 
must not proceed, and many will be spared. How 
the people fly from the trumpet and drum ! But 
the gods must be served, or man will cease at once. 
Oro perhaps chooses one to save a multitude. At 
all events, we must entice him from going over to 
the rebels. And Motuaro is safe for this time.' , 



CHAPTER III. 

THE PKIEST AND THE ORACLE. 

As soon as the assemblage on the shore perceived 
that the priest had come to the sacrifice, shouts of 
joy rent the air. The king did not conceal his ex- 
ultation ; and at his command, more presents were 
brought, and laid on the pile of the priests' offer- 
ings. Miava's heart was somewhat lightened. He 
unconsciously felt the reality that there must be in 
any observances which so deeply involved men's 
passions of hope and fear ; and he was aware of the 
dignity there was in being the medium between 
them and the unseen powers. He approached the 
Aoa, — the sacred tree which none but priests could 
pass without trembling, — and looked up among its 
wilderness of boughs with a tranquil gaze. There 
hung two human bodies, — the sacrifices offered at 
the beginning of the war-gathering. These he or- 
dered down, and caused to be enclosed in baskets 



26 DAWN ISLAND. 

of cocoa-nut leaves, and slung up to the rafters of 
the temple, to leave the tree clear for the one re- 
maining victim. 

This tree, much resembling the banian, .was as 
good an illustration as the vegetable world could 
furnish of the continuous being and self-diffusion 
of the deities worshipped in Dawn Island. Every 
branch sending down roots to the ground, and the 
sources of life being thus multiplied perpetually, 
it seemed as if the tree must live for ever. No man 
could ever learn from his fathers when this grove- 
like tree was a sapling ; and it was now a firm and 
universal belief that a bird had brought some seeds 
from the moon, and had dropped one on Dawn 
Island in his flight 

While Miava, in examining the interior of the 
Aoa, retired out of sight beneath its pillar-like stems, 
the gazers little knew that he met his attendants 
under the shadow, to give orders fatal to one of 
themselves. He named the victim, — and in a few 
moments more the man was felled by a blow on the 
back of the head, as he stood on the outskirts of 
the crowd, jesting with a comrade. He was a young 



DAWN ISLAND. 27 

man of turbulent temper and vicious habits, who 
could be spared better than most; yet his heavy 
fall, and the shrieks of his flying family, penetrated 
with horror all who saw and heard. Such specta- 
cles might increase their awe and dread of the gods, 
and certainly lessened their feeling for the sufferings 
of men; but the natural anguish of the moment 
could not be extinguished by custom and famili- 
arity. 

The rites now went forward with order and speed. 
The chief victim was suspended from the tree ; the 
hogs were slain and baked, — their heads placed 
upon the altars, and their flesh partly eaten by the 
priests. The messengers of the gods, rising in the 
shape of birds from out of the tree, on a burst of 
harsh music, were dismissed to the place of abode 
of the deities, somewhere near the foundation of 
the world, to announce and invite, in the usual 
terms: — "There is war in the world. Come up to 
the place of light, and help your worshippers." 

Before evening, the red feathers, taken from Oro's 
very image, were deposited in the sacred canoes; 
and all was ready for starting at daybreak, if only 



38 DAWN ISLAND. 

the response of the god in the night should be fa- 
vourable. For its announcement, many waited with 
anxiety. The king himself lay on his mat before 
the gate of the temple ; and his council watched on 
the steps which, on three sides, surrounded the in- 
closure. Miava was within, — he alone; and his 
station was in the innermost court. There stood 
the image of the god Oro, under a sort of wooden 
canopy. The rest of the court was open to the sky, 
but so walled round as that no eye could pry into 
the transactions of the priest and the oracle. 

Miava was intently on the watch for a sign from 
the god. How it would come, he knew not; whe- 
ther in the sighing of the breeze, or the piping of 
the night bird becoming articulate, or in a louder 
murmur of the waves, or by shooting stars flashing 
across the sky, (as meteors do in that climate,) or 
in a dream. After listening till his senses became 
confused, he lay down before the image, and looked 
up into the heavens, in order not to miss any token 
that might be manifested there. His sight was so 
dimmed by age that even the steady blazing stars 
of the tropical sky were to him blent in one hazy 



DAWN ISLAND. 29 

light; but if Oro wished to communicate with him, 
he would send a naming meteor sufficiently near to 
the earth. The uncertain waiting for such a sign, 
however, wearied his eyes, and he slept, — a broken 
and anxious sleep. He dreamed, or fancied, that 
a voice whispered to him, — he knew not whence, — - 
" The forest-tree shall grow; the coral shall spread; 
but man shall cease." Anxious to be assured, he 
cried, "Again!" But his own voice roused him. 
He started up. Nothing seemed changed. The 
hideous image of Oro stared, immoveable as ever, 
and the sounds of the night were all that was 
heard. 

Miava's heart interpreted the prophecy, recurring 
at such a moment, as a token that there must be 
more slaughter, — that the war must proceed. But 
he would not conclude hastily. The night was not 
half spent. If Oro, or a messenger spirit from him, 
had really entered the image, there would be some- 
thing done to preclude doubt. For hours he waited. 
The breeze had died away; the piping bird had 
gone to roost ; the heavens were calm. There was 
no further sign. 



30 DAWN ISLAND- 

As the dawn broke, and objects within the court 
became more clear, he perceived that something 
hung from the neck of the idol which was not wont 
to be there, — the singing-shell used by sorcerers in 
their divinations. These shells, being never known 
to refuse to answer, were carefully monopolized by 
those who had a right to intercourse with the 
demon which each contained. Miava saw at once 
that Oro had sent his messenger to speak to him 
through this shell. 

Reverently and anxiously he lifted the shell to 
his ear. It sang, of course ; — and to Miava the 
murmur appeared to be an incessant repetition of 
the plaint, " Man shall cease." The shell dropped 
from his hand. He could no longer question the 
response. He took a red feather from the image, 
and held it aloft as he issued from the inner court. 
The first golden spark of the sun was just rising 
from the brim of the ocean when he came forth. 
The king started to his feet. The council all 
arose, and each man uncovered his head and shoul- 
ders, in devout expectation. 

" The war must proceed," said Miava. 



DAWN ISLAND. 31 

" Oro is with us?" inquired the king. 

"He is not against us, for he has replied," said 
Miava, mournfully. 

"A multitude will return home ?" asked the 
king, struck by his tone. 

" Many will not return," replied Miava, speaking 
to the royal ear alone. "All else is made to 
nourish, but man to war and perish. Forests 
arise, and see how the corals spread ! But man 
must cease." 

The king's heart sank as he heard the old pro- 
phecy, — now confirmed on the threshold of Oros 
abode. He looked wistfully in the face of the priest, 
and walked in silence down to the shore where his 
canoe led the w r ar-fleet. 



CHAPTER IV. 



MOEE HUMAN SACEIFICE. 



The war proceeded. Many indeed of those who 
went out never returned ; but the destruction of the 
rebels was the most complete. Except the few who 
escaped to the recesses of the mountains, and a 
very few more who got off to sea through a perilous 
passage in the reef, none survived. Of the first, 
some soon perished from want, while others became 
in course of time wild men, forgetting language and 
such arts of life as they knew, and actually sinking 
lower than many brutes. Of the fugitives by sea ? 
a small number reached Evening Island, — the only 
land visible from Dawn Island, and so far distant 
on the western horizon, that no one thought of 
reaching it, except in a struggle for life. The lot 
of the prisoners taken alive was the worst. They 
saw first the destruction of their forces and their 
cause. They saw their huts burned — the women 



DAWN ISLAND. oo 

and children slain — their bread-fruit trees felled — 
the tops of their cocoa-nut trees cut off — total ruin 
overspreading their settlement. But, more than 
this, they had eaten their enemies after battle, and 
they knew that their own time was come. Theirs 
were not the feelings of disgust with which civilized 
men regard the act; but rather of a humiliation 
scarcely to be conceived of by any but a savage ; for 
civilized men can never be absolute slaves to cir- 
cumstance and event. They knew the passion of 
triumphant revenge under which they had swal- 
lowed the flesh of foes, and the exultation with 
which they had boasted of sharing with Oro his 
favourite feast. Now, they were to suffer, not only 
death by torture, but the contempt and malice of 
gods and men, — each in solitary despair. 

The festival was indescribable. To Miava it was 
as tolerable in aspect as it could be to any one ; for, 
as he saw in the idol Oro not a hideous image cut 
in wood, but a chosen form into which the war-god 
descended at will, so he saw in cannibalism a divine 
rite permitted to valiant men. The spirits of men 
were believed to be absorbed or imbibed by the dis- 



34 DAWN ISLAND 

embodied deities, to whom in consequence had ever 
belonged the title of "Man-eaters." When human 
sacrifices were offered, there was no doubt in the 
mind of a believing priest that the spirit of the 
victim was drawn out and appropriated by the god, 
as the plantain from its rind, or the milk of the 
cocoa-nut from the shell ; and, as spirits thus fed 
upon spirits, it seemed a sharing of the privilege 
for body to devour body. Thus, even such an one 
as Miava had calmly taken his share of the feast of 
victory, and was able to meditate on the act on his 
way up through the woods to his home. 

At home, he found a very different kind of enter- 
tainment going forward. Motuaro was there, pur- 
suing his courtship of Idya in defiance of personal 
danger, and of the discouragement of Idya herself, 
and in neglect of the mother and sister he had left 
in the wilds. He could not keep out of sight of 
the poor girl, who wished him far away. He fol- 
lowed her wherever she went, put jessamine blos- 
soms in her hair, and declared his love in words of 
passion ; but the customs of his country and tribe 
rendered his courtship as laborious and irksome to 



DAWN ISLAND. 35 

Idya, as it was unacceptable for other reasons. He 
never dreamed of not being waited on and provided 
for by her, as men always were by women. She 
had to go down to the shore for shell-fish, and even 
to cast a net for salmon. The leaves in which his 
food was to be baked must be plucked by her, the 
stones heated, the plantains gathered; and she 
must attend upon him during the meal. They w r ere 
thus engaged, — Motuaro supping in the middle of 
the floor of the dwelling, and Idya attending on 
him, when Miava appeared in the door- way. 

Idya sprang to meet him, telling him what was 
at the moment uppermost in her mind, — that she 
had been wishing that he had been home, that she 
longed to wait on him at his meal. 

"Yet," he replied, "you cannot long serve me. 
As Motuaro's wife, you must soon serve him." 

Motuaro sprang up in joy at hearing these words. 
But Idya replied, 

"No, — I do not wish to be Motuaro's wife. I 
wish to live as we have lived ; if only Motuaro would 
not leave his place of safety to follow me, when I 
do not desire to see him." 



36 DAWN ISLAND. 

" I will find a place of safety for him and you," 
replied the priest. " I see that he will neither be 
safe, nor provide for his wants, nor give food to his 
mother in the mountain, while he follows you in 
vain. You must be his wife, Idya; — it is best; and 
you must." 

Idya made no reply. The tears ran dow r n her 
face the whole time she continued to serve the 
meal ; and when it was clone, she disappeared. 

Miava then told the young man of the utter 
devastation of the other side of the island, and 
the undisturbed possession he might take of any 
spot there, while the district was supposed to be 
haunted by the demons who delight in such places. 
An incantation, such as Miava could supply, would 
protect any retreat from these demons ; and a safe 
and thriving home might thus be secured for the 
family, in the very midst of a desolation which would 
forbid the approach of any one else. Miava pro- 
mised to go himself in search of a place of abode, 
if the young man would immediately depart to his 
retreat in the mountains, and not return till the new 
moon, when he should receive his bride. Motuaro, 



DAWN ISLAND. oT 

all joy and thanksgiving, engaged not to molest 
Idya by his presence before the marriage -day, and 
forthwith set out for the mountain, without attempt- 
ing to take leave of the poor girl whom he now 
considered securely his own. 

When Idya came, at her guardian's call, to hear 
the arrangement made, she turned away her face 
from him, that he might not see in the moonlight 
the traces of tears. 

After relating to her the plans laid, Miava told 
her that she ought to rejoice in a prospect of mar- 
ried happiness so much more promising than was 
at all common. Xot only did her lover woo her 
with a passion which was indisputable, but, from 
their mode of life, it was improbable that he would 
have more wives, — at least for a long time to come; 
and before that time, she might, by devotedness 
and prudence, have obtained an influence over him 
which would secure her a considerable amount of 
dignity and authority in the women's house, who- 
ever might afterwards be the favourite. 

Iclya could at first only weep : but she soon timidly 
asked why she must many, when she wished to stay 
and serve her guardian. 



38 DAWN ISLAND. 

" You are growing old," she said. " If I go, you 
will grow cold and hungry, more and more ; — and 
I " 

" That is the very reason," replied the priest. " I 
could not long give you a home. The cold and 
weary season of my perishing is at hand ; and the 
young should be about their business and their 
pleasures. I had my time of youth and strength. 
Now my turn with the old men is come ; and I 
must grow more weak and poor and comfortless, till 
I can live no longer. And your turn is come to be 
the young man's wife." 

Idya did not dream of disputing this, — so fixed 
was the idea in all minds that the helpless, whether 
from age, sickness, or desertion, had arrived at their 
turn to perish. She therefore offered only a plea 
for herself. She represented that there might 
be some time yet before the feebleness of age 
came on ; that Miava was not imperious and 
requiring as young men were ; that she was now 
free from ill-usage and hardship ; and that she had 
rather not bind herself to such toils and sufferings 
as a husband would inflict on her. She preferred 
the kind voice and contented temper of her guardian 



DAWN ISLAND. 39 

to Motuaro's present love ; and if he ceased to love 
her, he might he very tyrannical. 

This was true, Miava admitted : hut matters 
would he made worse by delay. To he a first wife 
was an opportunity not to he lost ; and she must 
make no further ohjection. 

Idya did make no further ohjection. At the 
next new moon, she w T as married to Motuaro, with 
such celehrations as the priest's influence could 
provide, without the affair coming to the knowledge 
of the king, or other enemies of the bridegroom, and 
without danger of the young people being tracked 
to their new and unsuspected home. 



CHAPTER V. 



VITAL TEIBUTE. 



The home of the new-married pair was in a spot 
which united safety and beauty with healthy influ- 
ences. Wherever, through the whole circumference 
of the island, a stream descended along a valley to 
the shore, there was an opening in the reef opposite 
the mouth of the valley and river, affording access 
to the open sea just where fresh water was in abun- 
dance. Where such openings occur may commonly 
be found islets at the point of the reef, — the soil 
brought down by the river, and the weed and drift 
wood washed up by the sea, being accumulated 
against the barrier, and rising at last to the height 
of some feet above the water, affording a favourable 
spot for seeds to germinate, for roots to bind the 
soil, and at length for trees and shrubs to supply a 
covert for birds and game. Such an islet was 
chosen by Miava for the abode of the young people, 



DAWN ISLAND. 41 

— removed so far from the scene of battle as to be 
out of sight and reach of its effects, and yet so 
decidedly in the district of desolation as to be safe 
from the intrusion of any person on the other side 
of the island. The little green platform was not 
more than half a mile round. Three cocoa-nut 
trees rose in the midst ; and a good deal of shrub- 
bery afforded fuel at once, and promise of conceal- 
ment in case of need. 

In the dead of night, Motuaro ventured to the 
little cove, near his former home, where his canoe 
lay. and brought it round in the smooth water. It 
was not long before Iclya had obtained enough of 
the fibres of the cocoa-nut tree to make nets, where- 
with she procured fish for their support. Their 
abode was merely a hut of poles, set up between the 
three trees, wattled with twigs, thatched with cocoa- 
nut leaves, and the earthern floor strewn with dry 
grass. Their only luxuries were the beauties of the 
air, earth, and sea. These Motuaro continued to 
enjoy a good deal of; as he did little but bask on 
the shore, or bathe in the inlet. But Idya had no 
time or thought to spare from the business of 
n 



42 DAWN ISLAND. 

living, — poor as was the living obtained by her 
utmost care and industry. For months after her 
marriage, she rarely had news of her guardian. He 
was hardly strong enough now to make so distant 
an excursion ; — she could not be spared from home ; 
and she did not dream of asking her husband to 
take so long a walk to satisfy any anxiety of hers. 

A season was at length approaching, in the pros- 
pect of which Idya earnestly desired to see the 
friend whom she loved best in the world. One 
evening, her husband found her resting on the 
ground, — apparently playing with the blossoms of 
the white convolvulus, w T hich spread over the grass 
and the coral sands, down to the very edge of the 
water. Motuaro expected to find her at the oven, 
baking his supper ; and he was not quite pleased. 
He asked her what she was thinking of, to be 
lying there. She replied, as she slowly rose, that 
she was wondering whether Miava knew that a 
child would soon be born to her. 

Her husband asked if she felt afraid of being 
alone with him. If this had been a fourth child, 
which was to live, it would be necessary to have 



DAWN ISLAND. 43 

some one with them, to take care of it. But he 
knew how to dispose of it, and 

Idya said it was about that that she wished to 
see Miava. She supposed, however, that no mother 
would be right in preserving her first child. 

" No; nor the second," her husband replied. Of 
course, she could have no time to attend to it, in 
their present way of life ; — that was what he had to 
say about it. Miava had other reasons to give, he 
believed, which would show it to be very irreligious 
and shocking to preserve a first child. Nobody did 
it, as she well knew. 

Idya had lived so much in the woods, alone with 
her guardian, that she did not know much of what 
was done in society. She wished she had asked 
Miava about it ; for, she now would like to hear the 
reasons why her heart ought not to feel so sad. 

Motuaro told her that he thought he would go up - 
to the priest's dwelling, this very night. He had a 
reason. He had found a fine turtle ; and a turtle 
could not be eaten by any man without the sanction 
or participation of a priest. He would try to per- 
suade Miava to come down, and eat the turtle with 



44 DAWN ISLAND. 

him. She must immediately supply him with food 
to support him on the way ; and, as soon as he was 
gone, she must hury the turtle in the sand, to 
await his return. 

Idya obeyed with alacrity. She had no interest 
in the turtle, — no woman being permitted to taste 
food so much more worthy of men : but she would 
have undertaken any task for the chance of seeing 
Miava. 

She saw him the next evening. When the meal 
of turtle was finished, and Motuaro dropped asleep, 
and she stood behind the priest on the moon-lit 
shore, she spoke with a beating heart the question 
that lay so heavily there. She supposed that Mot- 
uaro must destroy their infant, as soon as it should 
be born. 

" Certainly," replied Miava. "Can you doubt it ?" 

Idya was silent. 

" Motuaro said something to me of your having 
feelings different from other women," continued the 
old priest : " and you have lived very much out of 
their way. But, besides the custom, there are the 
reasons for the custom." 






DAWN ISLAND. &5 

" What are they?" cried Idya eagerly. " Could I 
not carry my child on my shoulder while I am 
baking and making cloth, and let it lie in the canoe 
while I am fishing?" 

" No," replied Miava. " Motuaro would not like 
it. But it would also be a disrespect to the gods. 
The brothers of Oro were bound to celibacy. Their 
followers were bidden to live and die childless. 
They could not let their children live. It is neces- 
sary that some of our children should be reared : 
but respect for the gods forbids that many should 
live ; and among these, there must be no first- 
born." 

Idya had nothing to say to this. It was some 
relief to her to hear that there were reasons extend- 
ing beyond her husband and herself. Looking 
forward without hope, she felt but little grief at the 
time. She never heard the cry of her child, and 
did not know the moment when its new breath was 
stopped. The first time she raised her head from 
her mat, Miava showed her the exact place in the 
earthen floor where the infant had been trodden 
down, a few inches below the surface. Some fresh 



46 DAWN ISLAND. 

grass was strewed over it ; and on the precise spot 
did Motuaro many a day afterwards sit, to take his 
meals. 

Miava thought he perceived that Idya, when 
she soon arose from her mat in order to bathe, 
avoided treading on that spot ; and Idya thought 
she perceived that Miava watched, to see whether 
she did so or not. 

She might be right ; for Miava's mind was far 
from being at rest while haunted by the old pro- 
phecy. As he sat alone in the canoe that evening, 
apparently enjoying the lulling motion given by the 
ebb and flow of the waves through the opening in 
the reef, his meditations were not altogether as 
serene as his position and the scene before his eyes. 

" The shark is a horrid foe," thought he; "and 
no year passes but a shriek is heard from the shore, 
and blood is seen upon the waters, because the 
shark is there. — The water-spout is very fearful ; 
and in the stormy months, we know that some 
canoe or fleet is doomed to be engulphed, and the 
rowers to be seen no more. — War is more fatal than 
ten water-spouts or a hundred sharks. — But for ten 



DAWN ISLAND. 47 

warriors there die a hundred infants. Those who 
are born should be more than those who die ; but if 
every man has one or two living children, and many 
more dead, how are our valleys to be peopled again ? 
and will not rather the twenty peopled valleys 
become two?" He looked up the valley, and marked 
the clumps and groves that bordered the stream. 
He then gazed down into the clear depths of the 
inlet, and sighed forth the too familiar words, " The 
forest-tree shall grow, — the coral shall spread, — but 
man shall cease." 



% 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE PRIEST AND THE ADVENT. 

When Idya bathed, she did it with all the energy 
and enjoyment of the women of her tribe, who, 
having few other pleasures and much fatigue, revel 
in this mode of refreshment. It was her delight to 
dive to the deepest hollow of the white sands, for 
any tempting object she perceived there; and to 
swim out through the opening in the reef, to sport 
with the breakers beyond. — One day, before the old 
priest had returned to his home, and when he was 
sleeping away among the shrubs the hottest hour of 
the day, Idya had thus gone out some way into the 
open sea, for the pleasure of being brought back by 
the tide, when, rising from a dive, she saw some- 
thing more wonderful than all that the coral caves 
contained. 

On wakening Miava, and as she stood beside 
him with dripping hair and her garment hastily 



DAWN ISLAND. 49 

wrapped round her, she told him that she had seen 
a floating island, carried along by wings. At first 
she had thought it a very large bird, sent from the 
moon ; but on looking again, she doubted about its 
being alive. 

As she spoke, Miava looked extremely grave. He 
observed that there was an old prophecy which his 
father had desired him never to forget, or permit to 
be forgotten, — that some day a canoe without an 
out-rigger* would arrive from another world, and 
would be the cause of great changes. 

" But this is not a canoe," objected Idya. 

"Not like a canoe a hundred times larger than 
ours?" 

" No. And besides, no canoe could hold men, or 
swim for a moment without an out-rigger." 

" So said the people to the prophet, at the time. 
But he launched his wooden dish on a pool, and it 
floated; and he said it was thus that the great 
canoe would come." 



* An out-rigger is an appendage to a single canoe -whereoy 
its "balance is preserved, and it is prevented from sinking 
when loaded. 



50 DAWN ISLAND. 

"Let us climb the tree," said Idya, " and see 
whether the swimming island is in sight. — O ! can- 
not you climb at all? — I will tell you what I see; 
but you will not believe me." 

From the loftiest of the three trees, she saw very 
well what she wanted. But, after a while, she slid 
rapidly down the stem, being unable to endure the 
vision any longer. The vessel was coming nearer 
and nearer; and she had perceived that there were 
living and moving beings on board. 

In silent consternation, she and Miava sat watch- 
ing just within the verge of the shade. At length, 
Idya uttered a loud shriek, and even Miava hid his 
face in the grass for a minute, as an awful spectacle 
presented itself. A large and strange boat appeared 
in the opening, and it had no out- rigger ! This boat 
held ten personages, who were rowing somewhat as 
men paddle; but Miava could not think they were 
men, from their appearance. At all events, they were 
not inhabitants of the world, as he told Idya, — im* 
ploring her not to shriek again, but to let the ap- 
parition pass by. The shriek had, however, been 
heard. The strange boat did not immediately stop, 



DAWN ISLAND. 51 

but proceeded to the shore ; but one of the rowers 
pointed out to his comrades something on the islet. 
Of course, the cowering pair thought they were 
perceived; and they shook in every fibre of their 
frames ; but it might be only the roof of the hut, or 
the cocoa-nuts on the trees that were observed by 
the stranger. 

"It is true; — the day is come!" exclaimed the 
old priest, as soon as he dared speak. "We have 
seen the out-riggerless canoe ; and these visitors are 
people from behind the sky." 

" They have faces," said Idya, whose eyes were 
better than the old man's. " They have faces; but 
they are almost as white as the sand ; and in 
nothing else are they like men. — What shall we 
do? Shall we drown ourselves?" 

"Not yet," said Miava. "We can still do that, 
if they prove too dreadful. And they may be mes- 
sengers from the foundation of the world. We 
must wait." 

They were nearly sick with waiting and ex- 
pectation, when Motuaro appeared. He popped 
up his head from the smooth water, scrambled on 



52 DAWN ISLAND. 

shore, and threw himself down beside the priest 
and Idya. 

He had seen them, — seen more of the strangers 
than any one else yet. He had been fishing, — an 
exercise which he had had the grace to undertake 
while his wife was recovering her full strength. He 
was coming home with a good supply of fish, — sing- 
ing at the top of his voice, and not looking behind 
him as he paddled, trusting to the accustomed soli- 
tude of the region, when he heard a shout from the 
shore. What a sight he beheld ! There were several 
pale man-like beings splashing about in the shallow 
part of the stream, while two or three were on their 
knees higher up, drinking greedily. He rubbed 
his eyes ; but the vision remained ; and the appeal 
to his ears left no doubt. The strangers beckoned 
him to approach ; and their gestures were so dis- 
tinct that he dared not disobey. He slowly paddled 
towards them ; but his terror w r as so great when 
two of the beings ran into the water to meet him, 
laid white hands on his canoe, and shouted at sight 
of the fish, that he threw himself over the stern, 
dived to the lowest depths, swam for home, and left 



DAWN ISLAND. 53 

his property as a sacrifice to the people from behind 
the sky. 

These strange people, meantime, when they had 
satisfied their thirst by bathing and drinking in the 
stream, looked about for fruit and other fresh food ; 
but, within the range of their view, all was desolate. 
Nothing but rank and barren vegetation overspread 
the scene of the late war. The voyagers turned 
from the bare stems of the cocoa-nut trees, and the 
prostrate bread-fruit trunks, and from the naked 
rafters where fowls had once roosted, to look at the 
islet whence they had heard the shriek. Presently, 
their boat was nearing its little beach; and then 
Miava appeared from the shade, approaching to 
meet them. Xo other idea had entered his mind 
than that they were messengers of evil, — all the 
changes he had known in his life being for the 
worse. He therefore confronted them first, — partly 
that he might be their immediate victim, if neces- 
sary, rather than his young companions ; and partly 
that he might try the power of spells upon person- 
ages so strange. 

When he came near, he found that they were not 



54 DAWN ISLAND. 

all white. One man, though 'in all other respects 
like the rest of the party, was of a complexion 
nearly as brown as Motuaro's. This man not only 
made signs of amity to the priest, but spoke so 
that his words were for the most part understood. 
He said that the white men came from another 
country, far away. 

"From another world, — from behind the sky," 
replied Miava. " Have they a sun? or do they live 
in a region of night ? They have the skins of those 
who live in darkness, but they have eyes given 
them for our sun." 

" They live in our world, and our sun shines 
upon them when it leaves us," said the interpreter. 

Miava looked to the east, and from that horizon 
to Evening Island he gazed slowiy round, and 
shook his head. 

" There are other islands, besides these two," 
declared the interpreter. " I come from one fur- 
ther towards the sunset than yonder island, and yet 
the sun sets still far to the west. The foundations 
of the world are further off than you know of; and 
these men live between you and those regions of 









DAWN ISLAND. 55 

night. They not only live in the light of our sun, 
but they eat food as we do, — hogs, and fowls, and 
fruit." 

The Europeans heard the familiar names of these 
last articles, and, supposing the conference had 
reached a practical point, now advanced, and hold- 
ing out some unknown curiosities, repeated the 
words denoting hogs, fowls, fruit. 

Miava looked from one to another in bewilder- 
ment. The sailors were not disposed to wait his 
time. One threw sticks at the cocoa-nuts on the 
trees, and brought down ripe and unripe at random- 
One cut a stalk of sugar-cane, and found it so deli- 
cious that others joined him. Two caught a hog, 
and put it into a sack, and then into the boat. 
They trusted to their commander's paying for what 
they took; but when he perceived how unused 
Miava was to barter, how unaware of the value of 
the articles produced, he stopped the proceedings. 

First, he caused all the cocoa-nuts to be piled in 
one heap, and offered, through the interpreter, that 
Miava should select from his goods what he thought 
would pay for them. As it now indeed appeared 



56 DAWN ISLAND. 

that the visitors were not messengers of evil, the 
priest was anxious to relieve his companions from 
their terror ; and Motuaro and Idya came at his 
cheerful call. Of many articles offered, they 
could not at once perceive the value ; but there 
were some which they coveted on the instant, — even 
before Miava could satisfy himself that they were 
not unhallow T ed. Above all, Idya, who spent many 
a weary hour in kindling and watching the fire of 
the oven, was struck and charmed by a little box 
whose contents would make fire in a moment. She 
considered it worth more than a whole grove of 
cocoa-nuts. But her husband thought quite as well 
of a pewter spoon, with which he saw a sailor help- 
ing himself to the juice out of a sugar-cane. Motu- 
aro at once saw the use of this, and how T it w T ould 
aid him in his favourite occupation of feeding. The 
captain accommodated matters by giving the spoon 
in exchange for the canes. The hog then remained 
to be paid for. 

Miava eagerly insisted on the choice of an equi- 
valent being his : and it was granted on a cry of 
delight and admiration escaping from one usually 






DAWN ISLAND. 57 

so composed. The captain had observed that the 
old man's sight had failed a good deal ; and he 
placed first on his own nose, to show that they were 
harmless, and then on Miava's, a pair of spectacles. 
As soon as he could be persuaded to open his eyes, 
how great was his amazement ! He saw distinctly 
the faces of all around him, and the leaves of dis- 
tant trees, and the crests of the waves beyond the 
reef, and the blossoms of plants growing within the 
wood. He gazed around him, uttering new excla- 
mations at every discovery of some long-lost object 
of sight, and then hurried away alone into the 
shrubbery, in the fear that some accident or quarrel 
might deprive him of his new treasure. 

But what he saw during the daylight hours did 
not affect him nearly so much as the revelations of 
the night. When Idya had, wdth a beating heart, 
lighted a match to kindle the fuel of the oven, and 
Motuaro had supped, using his spoon for every 
mouthful, they were glad to sleep after the fatigues 
of so exciting a day. But the re-awakened sense of 
the old man would not permit sleep to approach 
him. As he cast his eyes upwards, trying whether 



58 DAWN ISLAND. 

he could see anything at midnight, he saw, through 
a hole in the roof, a shining star. A starry night 
was one of the fairest pictures in his memory. Now 
it occurred to him that hy this magic power he 
might enjoy it again. He rose hastily from his 
mat, and went out, escaping from the canopy of the 
trees to the open shore. There he remained for the 
succeeding hours,— hours which made him young 
again, not only in sensation, hut in emotion and 
thought. 

" Nothing is settled," thought he, " even to the 
oldest, to whom the young come as to oracles. 
News may arrive, even to our latest day ; and what 
we knew and had forgotten comes again like news. 
No one could better tell once where particular stars 
were to he looked for than I; hut there had so 
long been to me only a misty shine in the sky in 
summer nights that I had almost forgotten the 
sights that were behind it. And now the little yel- 
low fires burn clearly, — so many that the gods 
themselves can hardly count them. What would 
Teoro think of them ; he who has always been dim- 
eyed ? I will seek him out, and try to make him 



DAWN ISLAND. 59 

see them. But I know something of what he will 
feel, for I have this day been shown some wonder- 
ful things, about which I have been dim-eyed from 
my birth. I thought there had been no men but 
those like ourselves, all living in the islands of this 
wide sea ; but I am told, and I must believe it, 
that very different men live somewhere in the world, 
— knowing our sun, being able to float and fish in 
our sea, and to drink water and eat flesh and fruit 
as we do. They must be men, because they did 
not draw out and devour our spirits, but chose rather 
to eat fish and a hog. Yet they must have to do 
with the gods, because they have magical powers, 
and can give them to us, — causing fire to come in a 
moment where there was none before, and making 
dim eyes old and young by turns. If there are 
such different kinds of men, how can I tell how 
many sorts there may be ? And if there should be 
many kinds, how much longer will it take for man 
to cease ? At first, before I knew these strangers 
to be men, I feared that they were sent to bring 
men to an end quickly ; but now, if the world is so 
very large, and the same sun shines on so many 



60 DAWN ISLAND. 

tribes, the end must be a good way off. The forest 
tree may raise its head till it reaches the cloud that 
hides the mountain-top, — the coral may spread out 
till it binds together all the islands of the sea, 
before man ceases altogether. Ah ! but," pondered 
the old man, sinking from his mood of exultation 
to despondency, "though this may be true about 
the race altogether, may not our part of it be near 
perishing ? Have I not seen it dwindle mournfully 
in my day ? And who knows but these strangers 
may come to hasten the destruction ! Yet no !" he 
considered, brightening again. " The strangers 
who w r ere to arrive in an out-riggerless canoe were 
to cause remarkable changes ; and it would be no 
change, but a sad continuation, if men were to 
dwindle till they cease. These predictions seem to 
contradict each other, as that about the wonderful 
canoe contradicted the knowledge of all men. Yet 
that one became clear. And these may become 
clear. If these pale strangers should ever appear 
again, I will ask whether men become fewer in other 
parts of the great world, and whether their trees 
grow tall and their corals spread wide. But I can 



DAWN ISLAND. 61 

think of all this to-morrow ; and to-morrow the stars 
will not be seen, and no one can look at the sun till 
evening. Ah ha ! the moon is near the brim of the 
sea! Can she have waned so much ? She looks as 
if she had but five nights left; but her light is 
strong on the waves, and I see them heave and 
sparkle as I never do when she is roundest. Can 
she be made young as my eyes are?" 

This point might have been settled in a moment 
by Miava's looking at the vanishing moon under 
ordinary conditions ; and this, of course, he was 
well aware of. But it was hard to part with his 
new enjoyment for a moment; and while he was 
considering about it, the moon dropped beneath the 
waves. 



CHAPTER VII. 



A HIGHER DISCLOSURE. 



After this night of wondrous enjoyment, misfor- 
tune was in store for the old man. Having seen 
some of the beautiful things in which he had once 
delighted, he had a mind for more. He desired 
Idya to take him in the canoe to the clearest and 
smoothest part of the inlet, that he might gaze 
down, and once more see the branching corallines. 
In the midst of his pleasure, the spectacles fell 
from his nose into the water, and sank fathoms 
deep. Miava covered his face with a corner of his 
garment; for he was sorely grieved. Idya pre- 
sently leaped into the water, and dived again and 
again ; but it was some time before she could find 
the spectacles ; and when she did, one glass was 
gone, and the other broken. Idya wept abundantly ; 
and there were tears on the old man's cheeks as 
they drew to the shore. 



DAWK ISLAND. 63 

There they found a fearful sort of consolation. 
The white men were come again; at least, their 
boat was riding in the cove. No one was visible 
but two men who had been left in charge of the 
boat, and who had found a pine- apple, a little way 
off, which they were busily eating, — supposing they 
had the beach all to themselves. Idya made a sign 
of silence to the priest, pushed her canoe behind 
some bushes, entered the water again, and swam to 
the ship's boat, whence she soon returned with a 
pair of spectacles, a spoon, and a box of matches. 

Miava stroked her head, in sign of approbation of 
her skill, and, drawing back a good way from the 
water, put on his new spectacles. But where was 
the beneficent power gone ? All objects were dim 
and confused, — worse than when he used only his 
own eyes. 

He could not recover from his mortification and 
perplexity, — with which was mingled a fear of the 
displeasure of the god to whom he ought to have 
promised an offering before Idya did the deed, — 
Hiro, the god of thieves. 

The Europeans landed, wholly unaware of the 



64 DAWN ISLAND. 

loss of their property. They came prepared for 
barter on a somewhat larger scale, as well as to fill 
their water-casks from the springs on the shore. 
The captain was surprised at the depression of the 
old man, whom he had seen so dignified and self- 
possessed the day before ; but Motuaro, who pre- 
sented himself in a trice, was as energetic a cus- 
tomer as could be desired. The difficulty was that 
the islanders had scarcely any thing to exchange for 
the many articles they wished to have. The captain 
first, to their great joy, offered to pay them for the 
fish the sailors had taken the day before. For this, 
he gave Idya a piece of cloth which looked to her 
very curious and pretty. She wrapped it round her, 
and found it much lighter and easier than that 
which she herself had, with hard and protracted 
toil, beaten out of the fibres of trees. Motuaro saw 
at once the use of an axe, for which he gave a 
hog, — his last hog, — saying to himself that Idya 
must catch more fish, and he would try and find 
turtle. There were knives and scissors ; and the 
young people saw how useful such things might be 
made ; but they had nothing to give for them. 



DAWN ISLAND. DO 

They promised to collect fruits and fowls, and to 
make some mats, if allowed a few days ; but in their 
own minds they resolved to take what they wanted, 
in some sly way, from the boat. 

When the whites were about to depart, Miava 
roused himself to use his present opportunity, and, 
approaching the interpreter, begged him to win over 
the captain to put the magic again into his spec- 
tacles, that he might once more see beautiful things 
with them. 

The captain examined the spectacles, consulted 
with one of the sailors, and then bade the interpre- 
ter ask Miava how long he could see beautiful things 
with that instrument. He told eloquently what he 
had beheld yesterday and during the night, add- 
ing that he had lost his treasure in the sea this 
morning, and Idya had gone to the bottom to re- 
cover it, 

" The lie and the theft may be the woman's," 
observed the captain to his men. " These are Dr. 
Symons's spectacles, — unfit for old eyes. He must 
have them back, of course ; and we must come to an 



66 DAWN ISLAND. 

understanding with these people. Get the old man 
to sit down, Turoa," he added to the interpreter, 
" and be sure you make him understand what I 
say." 

The captain and Miava sat down opposite to one 
another on the grass, and the interpreter stood 
beside them, — the sailors being ordered to fall back 
out of hearing, and look well to the goods and the 
boat. 

" You are a priest, Turoa tells me," the captain 
began ; " and therefore you must be thought wiser 
than your neighbours." 

Miava looked grave, and said that messengers 
came and went between the gods and the priests. 

"And do not the gods permit men to make 
themselves comfortable by exchanging things with 
one another, as we have been doing to-day ?" 

"We grow fruit, and rear fowls and hogs, and 
catch fish, each for ourselves," replied Miava, " and 
when we send out warriors to plunder from our 
enemies, and bring home wealth, the god Hiro goes 
with them, — if we, the priests, can induce him." 



DAWN ISLAND. 67 

" And then some of the wealth is brought to the 
priests ?" 

"Certainly. They have toil in praying and 
watching." 

" And what does Hiro say when you take plunder 
from one another ?" 

Miava looked shocked, and. said that was a crime 
for which men and women were sometimes pun- 
ished with death. Against such, guard was kept. 
Large pieces of cloth were drawn up to the roof, 
where thieves could not get them ; and small ones 
were laid beside the pillow every night; and the 
fowls and hogs were housed within the dwellings; 
and every body was against thieves, and they were 
always punished, when they could be caught. 

"And if a pair of spectacles, like those, were 
stolen from my boat, would the thief be put to 
death?" 

" Certainly not," replied Miava. "They would be 
taken from strangers; and there is no harm in that." 
" The old fellow is in earnest," observed the cap- 
tain, aside to a comrade: "but I must make him 
a little wiser, priest as he is. — Did your young 



68 DAWN ISLAND- 

friend there find his canoe safe, after we were gone 
yesterday ?" he inquired of Miava. 

"Yes." 

"And is he satisfied with what my men gave 
him for his fish ?" 

" Ask him." 

" Why do you suppose we did not take the canoe 
and the fish without troubling ourselves to give any 
thing in return? We are strong men, — strong 
enough to carry away by force all that we wish for 
from this island." 

" There are many warriors on the other side," 
declared Miava. 

"Yes; but warriors cannot stand against thun- 
derbolts ; and we can blow thunder and lightning 
upon your people till they lie dead upon the ground, 
thicker than the skeletons we saw heaped together 
yonder." 

" And," interposed Turoa, " they are struck dead 
by these thunderbolts before they have time to 
throw a spear. And, besides, the whites can do 
this from such a distance that no spear can reach 
them." 



DAWN ISLAND. 69 

" Is this true ?" asked Miava, bewildered. 

" Quite true," said the captain: "but we do not 
w T ish to blow our thunder here, — unless you would 
like to see it." 

Miava was quite satisfied with hearing of it. 

"Well; why do you suppose we do not take all 
you have by force ?" 

" We might hide our things, and go away into 
the mountains in the night." 

"Just so. We should not get what we want if we 
frightened you away, and spoiled your property. 
We wish to be friends with you ; and for several 
reasons. We like to see people look cheerful and 
glad when we come among them. We like to sup- 
ply you with things which make you comfortable 
and pleased ; and w r e like to be able to come to your 
island, and get fresh water when we are thirsty, 
without putting any body into a fright, or having to 
hurt any one. But if you hurt us, w T e shall be angry 
perhaps ; and if not, we must go and give our useful 
and wonderful things to some other people." 

" We cannot hurt people who blow thunderbolts," 
humbly observed Miava. 



70 DAWN ISLAND 

" Yes, you can, though you cannot kill us. A 
wise man who is my friend cannot see the small 
plants on the ground, nor the leaves on the tall 
trees to-day, because you have got his spectacles," — 
pointing to the pair held by Miava. The old man, 
in indistinct shame at the detection, and in an 
equally vague fear of seeing a thunderbolt issue 
from some one's mouth, hastened to surrender the 
spectacles. No one would receive them, as they 
belonged to no one present ; but Dr. Symons was 
within hail, and he came gladly to recover his pro- 
perty. 

" Now try these," said the captain to Miava, ten- 
dering him a pair like those of the day before. 
Again the old man's delight burst all his restraints 
of shyness and fear. He produced the frame of the 
unlucky pair brought up from among the corallines. 

" Why did not you show me these before ?" asked 
the captain. "You see I can help you. Now — 
what will you give me for these new ones ?" Observ- 
ing a glance pass between one of his comrades and 
another, he observed, "Ay, I would give him spec- 
tacles, and any thing else he had a mind to, with 






DAWN ISLAND. 71 

all my heart ; but don't you see, the best kindness I 
can do him and the people of the island is to teach 
them to trade, — and honestly? A few sugar-canes 
and hogs are cheap payment for the best lesson any 
one ever taught them." 

The sailors agreed in this; but one could not 
resist adding to the value of the article by tying the 
spectacles on the old man's head with a piece of 
black ribbon out of his own private store. Miava 
promised any thing and every thing in his power, 
as the price of this purchase. In consideration of 
the accident by which he lost the first pair, a turtle, 
duly consecrated by him, was accepted in payment. 

The captain then opened to the awakened mind 
of the old man a view of the comforts which would 
be at the command of the islanders, if they could 
trade. He showed him axes enough for half the 
householders in the region. He showed him clasp- 
knives, tin-bowls, looking-glasses, hammers, and 
nails, and promised to prove to him at night that he 
could make his dwelling light in the inside, while 
all was dark without. But he explained that many 
men had worked hard to make these wonderful 



72 DAWN ISLAND. 

things, and that something that was wanted must 
be given in return, or there would be no encourage- 
ment to bring them. Both promised to consider 
well what the islanders could offer, or learn to pro- 
vide, in exchange for such beneficial supplies. 

For hours did Miava ponder this conversation. 
One of the practical conclusions he drew was of 
some importance. 

" When neighbours in a valley can exchange 
things so as to please one another, there is cheerful- 
ness, and none of the anger and danger that there 
are when men snatch or steal what they wish for, 
without considering whether the owner likes to part 
with the property. If these neighbours were always 
to consider each what he himself would like to be 
done to him, and do so to the other, there would be 
continual peace between them. And if all in the 
valley were to do the same, there would be peace 
from end to end. And if," he continued, brighten- 
ing, "it were so through the whole island, there 
would be no more war. And if other kinds of men 
and ourselves were to do the same, there would be 
no terror, nor blowing of thunderbolts, and we 



DAWN ISLAND. 73 

should have their wonderful gifts, and they would 
have our fresh fruits when they are thirsty, and our 
mats for a shade at noon. If every where men 
could so please one another as they would be 
pleased themselves, and there was peace, man 
would not cease for a long time yet. But then — " 
and his heart sank — "how could it be about the 
sacrificing of men to the gods ? for no man likes to 
be sacrificed to Oro; and yet somebody must be 
devoted by the priests. I must think about this," 



CHAPTER VIII. 



SPIBITUAL TKIBUTE. 



The strongest desire was excited in the minds of 
Miava and his companions to obtain more of the 
precious articles brought by the strangers. All the 
rest of that day, they consulted about raising the 
means of purchase. Idya was to work harder than 
she had ever done in her life before, and Motuaro 
himself promised to go fishing. Idya prepared to 
go to a marshy place at the foot of the mountains, to 
catch wild ducks, — a delicate process, about which 
she was very clever, — swimming softly and slowly, 
her head covered with a calabash, and thus ap- 
proaching the birds unseen, and then pulling them 
quickly under the water by the feet, before they 
could give notice to their companions. She was also 
to take her sling, and bring down some wood pigeons. 
On receiving this last order, she looked grave. 

Miava observed that these were all things to eat 



DAWN ISLAND. 75 

and drink, — things that would soon disappear, and 
leave no trace for the foreigners to remember them 
by. If the strangers could cany something to their 
own country which people there would admire or 
could use, the captain might return, and bring more 
wonderful gifts to the island. Idya must go 
through the whole thicket, and see how many cotton 
shrubs there were, and what prospect of seed there 
was, that she might plant some, and raise cotton, — 
as the interpreter said was done in his island. And 
she might mark the sandal-wood trees for the cap- 
tain to look at. Some of his men had talked of 
bringing axes on shore, Turoa had declared, to fell 
and carry away sandal- wood, 

Idya made no reply but by a shudder till her hus- 
band had gone out, — which he presently did when 
there was talk of real work to be done. She then 
entreated Miaya not to send her alone into the 
bushes, for she was afraid, — not of any man, — not 
of the gods, — but of her own babe. On the lagoon 
or the shore, she could look around her and fear 
nothing ; but in the thickets, the spirit of her child 
appeared to be every where, — she could not escape 



70 DAWN ISLAND. 

from the spectacle of it ; and into the bushes she 
really dared not go. 

Miava attempted to console her by saying that in 
this vision there was nothing uncommon. He 
named several women whom he knew to be thus 
haunted by their lost babes, till some of their off- 
spring were allowed to live, when the liability 
usually ceased. A sinful thought here crossed his 
mind, — so shocking that he put it down, — that it 
was ungrateful and unkind of the gods to torment 
thus the mothers who showed respect to their celi- 
bacy, while, if the same women indulged their own 
natural affections, they would not be afraid in the 
thickets, or any where else. 

Miava's compassion for his young daughter made 
him wish, as he said, that Motuaro would under- 
take that part of their business which she shrank 
from ; but, while thieving from strangers was con- 
sidered an innocent act, there was no chance of 
men being roused from their indolence to honest 
industry. Motuaro was now swimming off to the 
ship, hoping to bring away some booty from the 
boat, or by a sly and adventurous visit on board. 



DAWN ISLAND. 77 

He swam round once, unperceived, and he found 
something so desirable in the course of that circuit, 
that he had no immediate wish to look further. The 
ship's flag was hanging so low as to touch the 
water. Its gay colours and wonderful fabric at- 
tracted Motuaro's cupidity, and he seized it, and 
had nearly cut away half of it when a shout from 
on board warned him to retreat. He had, of course, 
no idea of the sacredness of a flag. The captain 
knew this, and thought the present a proper oppor- 
tunity for duly impressing the islanders with a 
sense of it. He ordered guns to be fired after the 
swimmer, — taking care that the aim should not be 
at him, but at the cocoa-nut trees which oversha- 
dowed his dwelling. 

The middle tree rocked and fell with a crash 
which terrified Miava and Idya as thoroughly as 
the captain intended. Idya could see the men on 
board stoop to the guns, as they took aim, and then 
send forth flame, noise, and destruction. 

"They are blowing thunderbolts !" she and 
Miava exclaimed at the same moment. 

They next saw that Motua.ro was swimming 



78 DAWN ISLAND. 

homewards at his utmost speed, and for a moment 
they wondered that he had been spared. But it 
was only for a moment. He shrieked out, "The 
shark !" — leaped half out of the water with a cry of 
agony, and then disappeared amidst the wide stain 
of his own blood, which dyed the breakers and the 
lagoon to the very shore. 

The captain was concerned, — not doubting that 
a shot had unintentionally reached the thief. He 
sent out a boat to pick up the victim, whose mangled 
remains showed at a glance what had been the man- 
ner of his death. 

That night, the captain stood, with Miava and 
the interpreter, beside the bier, on which the dead 
man was placed in a sitting posture, his ghastly 
face appearing above the coverings which hid the 
rest of the body. No countenance and manner 
could be less formidable to most people than those 
of the captain; but Miava regarded him with a 
painful awe. One cause of this was that the captain 
had fulfilled his promise of making a dwelling light 
within, while all was darkness without. He had 
caused the shed (to which one end of the dwelling 



DAWN ISLAND. 79 

was now reduced by the fall of the tree) to be lighted 
up with lamps, — a spectacle perfectly new in the 
island. The unwholesome floor had also been 
swept out, and strewn thick with white coral sand, 
which seemed to glitter in the lamp light. 

" Tell me," said Miava, solemnly, " are the 
sharks your messengers ? The blue sharks are the 
messengers of our gods ; and you come from near 
their region of night. If the sharks are your ser- 
vants, tell me so." 

" They are not," replied the captain, with a con- 
vincing seriousness. " I did not desire this man's 
death. If I had, I could have struck him dead in 
a moment, as I knocked down your tall tree. I 
wished him to live, and remember that he must not 
steal from foreigners, — and particularly that he 
must not touch their sacred things." 

Turoa here conveyed to the priest some idea of 
how and why national flags were tabooed; and 
Miava promised to teach the king and his subjects 
so distinctly that there could be no mistake, that no 
one of them could lay hands on this token of world- 
wide citizenship, and hope to live. When Miava 



80 DAWN ISLAND. 

heard that no men on earth need ever hope to buy 
it, — that no captain would ever sell it for the wealth 
of the whole world, he was so deeply impressed as 
to wonder no longer that the gods had taken up the 
cause of the white men, and had sent a shark to 
destroy Motuaro. 

He timidly inquired whether, in the country of 
the flag, Motuaro's widow and family would he 
tabooed. He was relieved and surprised by the 
answer that individuals were answerable for their 
own sins, and that Idya would be pitied and aided, 
— she being innocent of all offence. 

"Then," he exclaimed, "you will not cause her 
to be tabooed here." 

" Certainly not. Show me how I can serve her, 
and I will prove to you how we think on these mat- 
ters. Where and how will she live ?" 

"Where and how would you wish her to live?" 
asked Miava submissively, — affording an opportu- 
nity for a lesson which the captain did not throw 
away. 

"What person in the world does she love best?" 

" She loves no one but me." 



DAWN ISLAND. 81 

"What? has she no child?" 

That sad story was soon told ; and the mournful 
impression it made on the captain struck Miava 
forcibly. 

" Did she love her husband?" 

" No," replied Miava tranquilly. " It was neces- 
sary that she should marry him ; but she loved only 
me, her father." 

" Then we need not be so sorry for her, after all," 
said the captain, " except indeed about her babe. 
If that infant had lived, she would have had some 
one to love besides you, — some one to care for after 
you are dead. And you would have had that little 
one to play about your knees as you sit in the 
shade, and lead you about when you grow more 
blind. And you let that child be murdered !" 

"You are displeased now," pleaded Miava ; " and 
the gods, and the priests, and the king, would have 
been angry if the child had lived." 

" How do you know that your gods would have 
been angry ?" 

" They would have sent misfortunes on Idya and 
all of us. if we had let a first-born child live ?" 



82 DAWN ISLAND. 

" Have you ever tried ? I will answer for it there 
are many mothers willing to try whether it is really 
so, if you would let them have their way. Would 
not Idya herself, if you had not overborne her ?" 

" She would. But to show this disrespect to the 
gods ! — who could dare to permit it ?" 

The captain quietly said that he doubted whether 
the gods were satisfied with things as they were. 
He would show respect to them in a different way. 

With extreme eagerness, Miava inquired his 
meaning, saying, 

" You come from near the foundations of the 
world. You may know more of these things than 
we do. How may we best show respect to the 
gods ?" 

" Do they show your people any lasting favour 
now?" asked the captain. " If I saw yonder valley 
full of happy families, I should think you had 
found a way to please your gods ; but I see it deso- 
late and spread with skeletons. I look for husbands 
and wives who love each other, and carry their 
infants in their arms ; and here I find a widow who 
cannot mourn that her husband is dead in his 



DAWN ISLAND. 83 

prime, and who dares not go among the bushes lest 
she should be haunted by the murdered child who 
ought now to be asleep upon her bosom. What is 
plainer than that she is punished by the gods for 
some dreadful mistake? If such is the state of 
things on the other side of your island, I should 
say that the gods are so displeased that it would be 
wise in you to try a new and a better way." 

" There is an old prophecy which sounds in my 
mind in every place at all times," said Miava. And 
he mournfully repeated the familiar words. 

"Why, there is a plain warning for you!" exclaim- 
ed the captain. " Your men must cease while you 
have wars, and murders at the altars and at the 
birth of infants. If the forest-tree and the coral are 
not good enough to offer to the gods, and man alone 
is so, surely he is too good to perish out of the 
world while forest-trees and corals are growing. — 
Ah ! I see your difficulty. You think the gods must 
have the best of created things devoted to them ; 
and so do I." 

" You do ?" 

" Yes ; but in a very different way from yours. If 



84 DAWN ISLAND. 

you knew the gods to have one wish stronger than 
any other, would you not think it most respectful to 
observe it? Well! all that we know the gods to 
have made and done shows to my mind that they 
intend men to grow and ripen, like the fruit on the 
trees, and not to fall till it is fully ripe. If you 
planted a tree, and children and foolish people 
plucked and threw away the fruit, — some as soon as 
it showed itself, and the rest before it was ripe,— 
would you not be displeased, and leave the tree to 
perish ?" 

" I w r ould taboo the fruit," observed Miava. 
" That is right," said the captain. " I wish you 
would taboo men's lives. That would be the best 
respect to the gods, who made men live." 

The priest covered his face in the agitation caused 
by this suggestion of a vast idea. The captain 
quietly left him, beckoning to Turoa to follow^ him. 
"Taboo the life of man !" thought Miava, as he 
stood alone beside the bier. " What then w T ould be 
the tribute paid to the gods ? Would it not still be 
the spirits of men, — of living instead of dead men ? 
If the gods had rather that the spirits of men 



DAWN ISLAND. 85 

should ripen and multiply, and be full of wisdom 
and joy before they go to them in the region of 
night, no wonder they are displeased at the number 
of immature and unhappy wretches that we have 
offered to them ! No wonder priests are haunted 
by the warning that man shall cease ! My spiiit is 
heavy and sad ; for their displeasure is terrible. 
But if we can learn a better way, the anger and the 
curse may be withdrawn, and man may again 
increase. True was the prophecy, that the out- rig- 
gerless canoe should bring about great changes in 
our world !" 



CHAPTER IX. 

NATURE AND MAN AT PEACE. 

The captain was not sorry that it suited his pur- 
poses to move round to the peopled side of the 
island, for he saw how the germs of civilization 
which he and his traffic had planted in this new 
soil might be fostered by his appearing before the 
king and his subjects as the friend of the influen- 
tial old priest. The funeral of Motuaro taking 
place necessarily the next day, the body was con- 
veyed round by the widow and Miava in their 
canoe, a short time before the ship left her station. 

A great number of eager inquirers were as- 
sembled round the body, and the king had assured 
himself that his tabooed subject was beyond the 
reach of his wrath, when the attention of all was 
called away by the spectacle of the vessel, so many 
times larger than any they had ever seen, coming 
round the point. Miava's explanations of this 



DAWN ISLAND. 81 

vessel being the one indicated in the old prophecy 
fell upon excited minds ; and all who heard were 
ready to obey his directions to prepare for barter. 

The exchanges of food and foreign goods were 
carried on with more order than is usual on the 
first occasion of a newly-discovered people being one 
of the parties ; and when even the most fortunate 
sellers found that, much as they had gained, there 
were many other desirable things which they could 
not have till they could offer commodities less 
perishable and more valuable than food, it was 
not difficult to bring them to a purpose of prepara- 
tion for a better traffic, if the Europeans would pro- 
mise to come again. Those who had axes engaged 
to furnish sandalwood ; and others, enamoured of 
cotton and linen cloths, and being assured that 
they, by industry, could produce the cotton and 
flax needed for such fabrics, began to inquire how 
they could be instructed in the art of growing them. 
Matting and cordage they could soon supply, to a 
small amount; and tortoise-shell could be added, 
when its European value was known. It was only 
the comprehensive mind of the old priest which 



88 DAWN ISLAND. 

could grasp at once all these details, and take in 
the prospect opened by the advent of Commerce 
in his world. For him it was almost too much. 
His breast heaved, as he put the question to the 
captain, 

"What shall I offer to our gods when I send 
messengers to tell them that the out-riggerless 
canoe has come ?" 

"Lay before them," said the captain seriously, 
" an axe, and a knife, and a looking-glass, and a 
garment of cotton. These good things come out of 
the spirits of men; and they will please the gods 
till they themselves send natural death to bring the 
spirits of men to them, when all the work is done 
that they can do in your world." 

The king understood Turoa's words of interpreta- 
tion, and looked confounded. 

" No more sacrifices of men !" he cried. 

" No more," said the captain emphatically, 
" unless you wish to offend the gods who send you, 
by that vessel, the changes foretold long ago." 

" But how shall I deal with my disobedient sub- 
jects?" asked the king, innocently, " if I cannot rid 



DAWN ISLAND. b\) 

myself of them, and keep them in fear by the 
sacrifice ?" 

" The gods will show favour very soon, and make 
your world happier, and your subjects more con- 
tented, and better able to pay tribute than ever 
before ; so that there will be less need to make them 
afraid. And men will increase ; and the more men 
the more tribute." 

" Men will increase ?" 

"Yes; as surely as the forest- tree rises, and as 
fast as the coral branches out over the sands of the 
sea. But not unless you make one great change 
which you have never yet been told." 

" Tell us now," cried the king and priest in a 
breath. 

" I have told you that the gods will henceforth 
have what the spirits of men can make and do, 
rather than the spirits themselves ; mens works 
and men's thoughts, rather than their bodies in 
sacrifice. Do you hear me ?" 

"Yes. Tell us the other great change." 

" No one knows when the spirits of men begin to 
work, or when they leave off ; or whether they work 
o 



90 DAWN ISLAND. 

best when their bodies are weak, or when they are 
strong. Every human creature that has a spirit in 
him must therefore be taken care of, and kept alive 
as long as possible, that his spirit may do all it can 
in the world." 

"How many spirits have we sent .away too 
early !" exclaimed Miava. 

"That was before these changes," said the cap- 
tain. "When you try the new ways that are now 
to begin, you will find how the spirits of old men 
speak wise things, and how the spirits of little chil- 
dren promise what they will do as men, — -just as 
the day-spring promises what the noon will be. 
And then your old men, and your blind and sick 
people will not be left to perish because they are 
weak; and no more infants will be destroyed." 

"But w^hat can our women do, with so many 
children?" 

"In our country," the captain began 

" That is near the foundation of the world ; — he 
comes from nearer the gods than we are," the priest 
solemnly reminded the king. 

"In my country," pursued the captain, " we men 



DAWN ISLAND. Ul 

do differently from you, because we love our chil- 
dren, and do whatever we are permitted to keep 
them alive. We ourselves get food and build 
houses and obtain clothes. Our women make the 
clothes, and keep the houses clean, and cook the 
food, and take care of the children." 

" And must we do as you do ?" 

"You will do it because you like it, w T hen once 
you let your infants live to show that they have 
spirits. If a husband and a wife smile, like those 
people there," — pointing to a man and woman who 
were amused at their child's gambols, — "if one 
child makes them smile so, think how their spirits 
would laugh if all that they have destroyed were at 
play beside them ! When every dwelling has such 
laughter in it, you will know that the gods are 
favourable, and that man will not cease." . 

His hearers being absorbed in the contemplation 
of these wondrous changes, their instructor, whom 
they now regarded as a messenger from the gods, 
gravely asked, 

"Where is the mother of that dead man ?" 

Miava looked doubtfully at the king. 



92 DAWN ISLAND. 

" Speak," said the king. 

" But the taboo !" 

" She must not be hurt," declared the captain. 
" The taboo is to be buried in her son's grave." 

" Then Motuaro's dwelling, yonder, in the valley 
" said the priest. 

" Is for her and for Idya to live in, and for you, 
Miava, if you will, that all may see that the taboo 
is taken off, and that the old and the feeble are to 
be taken care of, for their spirits' sake. If you are 
willing," he continued, turning to the king, " I will 
fix a sign on the house which shall make all men 
know and remember." 

The king having nothing to object, a white flag 
was presently fixed on the roof of Motuaro's dwell- 
ing, marking it at once for safety, and as the abode 
of the old priest. 

That done, the captain and his people took leave 
of the king and priest with parting presents, and 
promises of further intercourse, either in their own 
persons or by other messengers from the uttermost 
parts of the world. 

Groups were assembled on every headland, and 



DAWN ISLAND. 98 

the tallest trees were occupied by men to watch the 
sailing away of the mighty vessel. 

" It has left behind the will of the gods," thought 
Miava, " and great gifts from them. I too, whose 
eyes were so dim, can see it depart as the young 
men do. We know now of such changes as were 
never told to men before since our world was made ; 
and when these messengers come again, they will 
perhaps show us more. But they have told us the 
greatest news, — that man shalVnot now cease. That 
curse is taken off." 

" You were like a preacher or a prophet to these 
poor people," observed Dr. Symons to the captain, 
as they stood on deck, watching the receding shores 
of the beautiful island. " Were my spectacles your 
text? If so, they are highly honoured." 

" Every thing is honoured, be it what it may," 
replied the captain, "which is an instrument for 
introducing the principles and incitements of civili- 
zation among a puerile people. Yes, — I was their 
preacher and prophet just now ; — and without affec- 
tation, — without any hypocrisy. I thought of 



94 DAWN ISLAND. 

nothing less, when I landed, than giving such a 
discourse; but it warmed my heart and filled my 
head to see how these children of nature were 
clearly destined to be carried on some way towards 
becoming men and Christians by my bringing 
Commerce to their shores." 



THE END. 



MANCHESTER: 
PRINTED BY J. GADSBY, NEWALL's-BUTLDINGS. 



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